Katie Holmes, William Hurt, Allison Janney and More in Talks for Retelling of Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL

Actor Christian Camargo, whom many remember from a crucial arc in the first season of the Showtime series Dexter, is gearing up to make his directorial debut with an ambitious modern retelling of Anton Checkhov’s The Seagull, and he’s got a stellar cast in tow. Variety reports that Katie Holmes, William Hurt, Allison Janney, Russell Means, Jean Reno, Mark Rylance and Juliet Rylance are all in various stages of negotiations to join the ensemble cast. The film will take place in rural New England “where reckless desire wreaks havoc over Memorial Day weekend as a family confronts the volatile and fragile nature of love.”

West Wing vet Janney will play a movie star based on the Seagull role of Irina, Hurt will play her ailing brother, and Holmes will play “the temperamental daughter of the estate’s caretaker.” I haven’t read The Seagull, but I’m impressed by the cast Camargo has assembled here and I’m eager to see what this re-imagining has in store. Camargo wrote the script himself and production is set to get underway this summer. Hit the jump to read a synopsis for The Seagull.

Here’s a synopsis for Chekhov’s The Seagull:

Through both comedy and tragedy, Seagull explores lives that are precariously balanced between love and indifference, success and failure, hope and despair. The first of what are considered to be Chekhov’s four great plays, it sets the scene for the playwright’s unmistakable mix of melancholia and laughter combined with a unique understanding of the daily torment of an unfulfilled. [Barnes and Noble]